Neck support pillow

ABSTRACT

The neck supporting pillow with some special features: inflatable, this will give complete control over firmness, soft sponge-like material on the outside, to make the contact points soft, neck-support part is like a ridge, approximate width of the curvature of the neck. Anterior convexity of this neck supporting ridge is the most important feature. When the user lies on his or her back, back of the head will slide into a center head rest recess. This completes the anatomical-specific features. On either side of the head-rest recess is a slightly raised area to rest face on lying-on the right or left side.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to a pillow generally and more particularly to apillow with a neck supporting feature.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is a common experience for people to wake up in the morning with neckpain. This pain is often due to the non-anatomical positions in whichour necks end up in for hours at a time while sleeping. Many firms haveaddressed this problem, but they have not come across an entirelysatisfactory solution yet.

This invention described below incorporates means to support the neck inits anatomically normal position. Also, by being inflatable, eachindividual can find the right degree of support.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A neck supporting pillow has a body and a neck support. The neck supportis affixed to the body and projects above and at least partially infront of the body. The neck support has a width approximating the widthof the curvature of the neck and is formed with an anterior convexityrelative to the body of the pillow. The body is formed with one or moreinflatable bladders. Each inflatable bladder has a separate inflationtube. Each inflation tube is affixed to the bladder and is extended tofill and retracted in a recess when the body is filled and the tube issealed. The neck support is also formed with an inflatable bladder. Thebladder of the neck support has an inflation fill tube. The inflationfill tube is preferably on an underside of the neck support and isdesigned to fit in a recess of the neck support and is extended to filland refracted and pushed into the recess of the neck support when thetube is sealed and the neck support has been filled to the desiredlevel. The body and neck support are preferably covered along theexterior surfaces with a foam elastomeric material. The foam elastomericmaterial can vary in thickness, however, and should be sufficientlythick to provide a desired comfort level for the user of the pillow. Thebody has a generally planar or flat exterior bottom surface and anexterior top surface with a central depression for the head to rest. Thecentral head depression extends from adjacent the neck support to anopposite side or edge of the body. The body preferably has threeinflation bladder chambers, one on each side of said body and a centralchamber interposed between and forming the head depression. Each chamberextends from a front to a back of the body, generally parallel to thesides of the body.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be described by way of example and with reference tothe accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a top view of the neck supporting pillow of the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 is an end or front view of the neck supporting pillow of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the neck supporting pillow of FIG. 1taken along lines 3-3.

FIG. 4 is a plan side view of the neck supporting pillow of the presentinvention.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the neck supporting pillow of FIG. 1taken along lines 5-5.

FIG. 6 is a frontal perspective view of the neck supporting pillow ofFIG. 1.

FIG. 7 is a rearward perspective view of the neck supporting pillow ofFIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

With reference to FIGS. 1-7, various views of the neck supporting pillow10 of the present invention are illustrated. With reference to FIG. 1, atop view of the pillow 10 is shown. As shown, the pillow 10 has a body12 that extends between sides 14, 16 and has a central head-restingdepression 15 aligned between the sides 14, 16 of the pillow body 12. Inan anterior portion of the pillow 10 is shown a neck support 20. Thisneck support 20 lies adjacent the head-resting depression 15 and extendsforward and beyond the body 12 of the pillow 10. As shown in FIG. 1,each side 14, 16 of the body 12 of the pillow 10 has an inflation tube30 that is shown projecting outwardly. The central rear portion of thepillow 10 also has an inflation tube 30 to fill the central head-restingdepression 15. On an undersurface of the neck support 20 further isillustrated with an inflation tube 30. These inflation tubes 30preferably are made of a flexible material that can be extended in orderto fill inflation bladders 44, 45, 46 and 22 within the pillow 10 andthen can be closed and sealed and pushed inside and kept flush with thebody 12 once the desired inflation has been achieved.

With reference to FIG. 2, the inflation tube 30 and neck support 20 aremore easily visible. FIG. 2 shows a front view of the pillow 10 whereinthe neck support 20 is shown extending forward of the pillow body 12.

With reference to FIG. 3, a cross-sectional view of the pillow is showntaken along lines 3-3 of the pillow shown in FIG. 1. In this view it canbe seen that on each side of the pillow there is an inflation bladder44, 46. These bladders 44 and 46 are independent of each other and canbe filled to different rate or to the same rate of inflation dependingon the user's desire. Interposed between the two side bladders 44, 46 isa central bladder 45 that helps form the head-resting depression 15.This view is looking along lines 3-3 and towards the front of the pillow10 where the neck support 20 is shown traversing across the head-restingdepression 15.

With reference to FIG. 4, a side view of the pillow 10 is illustrated.In this view, the fill tubes 30 can easily be seen. As shown in FIG. 4,it extends slightly above the top surface 18 of the pillow 10 andextends along the front 19 of the pillow 10 projecting forward of thepillow body 12 slightly. The sides 14, 16 of the pillow 10 can have aslightly rounded feature, but it is important to note that the necksupport 20 feature projects forward significantly from the main bodystructure or body 12. This is considered important when one considershow the neck of the user needs to be supported in order to keep the mainbody 12 of the pillow 10 from interfering with this proper neck supportfor the desired comfort of the person using the pillow 10.

With reference to FIG. 5, a cross-sectional view is shown taken alonglines 5-5 of FIG. 1. In this cross-sectional view, the central bladder45 forming the head-resting depression 15 is illustrated and theconcavity formed in that depression is easily illustrated. In addition,the neck support 20 is shown as a rounded or cylindrical structure thatprojects outward from the main body and upward of the main body 12. Thisprovides a significant amount of space to provide a proper neck support.On the exterior surfaces 17, 18 of the pillow 10 as shown in FIGS. 3 and5, a foam 50 is applied that provides a soft cushioning material onwhich the head can rest. This is important in that the inflationbladders 44, 45, 46 and 22 for the pillow 10 are air-impermeable andprovide little comfort for one using the pillow 10 in the absence ofsome type of soft somewhat open-celled skin covering the entire pillow10. It is important to note, in use, the entire pillow 10 can be slippedin a pillow case (not shown), the conforming shapes of the pillow 10will work very satisfactorily when positioned inside a pillow case. Thisis true because the pillow case will simply conform to the shape of thepillow 10 when the user is attempting to sleep using this pillow 10 withthe neck support feature.

With reference to FIGS. 6 and 7, perspective views of the pillow 10 areshown wherein the inflation tubes 30 are all shown in the recessedposition and the pillow 10 is preferably inflated. As illustrated inFIG. 6, the neck support 20 juts or projects forward of the main body 12of the pillow 10 and curves upwardly creating a convexity upon which theneck can be supported along the top surface 18. The width of this necksupport 20 is sufficient to extend between the shoulder and the head,thereby providing sufficient support for the entire neck. This isimportant in that the neck has a curvature that ideally should be fullysupported between the head and the shoulders. In most prior art devicesa simple neck support is provided across the top surface of a pillow andas a result the pillow body often interferes with the ability of theuser to properly and comfortable position the pillow relative to theneck. In the current invention, the neck support 20 is provided with acurvature on each side that extends in a slight truncated “U” shaped 21allowing for the head to fit in the head-resting depression 15comfortably and allows the chin to extend slightly above or ahead of theneck support 20. In this way, the user can roll from side to side or layon his back and his neck will be fully supported. This is possiblebecause the pillow 10 neck support 20 has a sufficient width thatcorresponds nicely to the length of the neck; also, due to the fact thatthe neck support has a curvature projecting out from the front side 19it comfortably supports the neck in the region next to the shoulderblades. This provides a superior comfort fitting neck support thatheretofore has not been provided.

Prior art devices simply have considered the concept of a depression forthe head, but have not considered the possibility that the pillow itselfcan interfere with proper comfort even if an elevated portion isprovided on the top surface. It is therefore important that the necksupport 20 have an anterior convexity that accomplishes proper necksupport. An advantage of the present invention is that by havingindependently inflatable chambers 44, 45, 46, the sides 14 and 16 of thepillow 10 can be set at different inflations wherein the user can setthem to the desired comfort levels. The central head-resting depression15 similarly having a separately inflatable bladder 45 can be adjustedindependently as well. What is most important, however, is that the necksupport 20 being totally independent of the body 12 in regards to itsinflation chamber 22, can be adjusted such that the inflation can beraised or lowered to provide several optimal features, the first beingthe comfort so that the unit is not too hard or too soft, but moreimportantly it also enables the user to adjust the height slightly. Thiscan be accomplished by increasing the pressure on the neck support sothat the neck support 20 projects in either a fully extended conditionand softening the underlying chamber 45 of the head-resting depression15 such that the entire assembly can then flex and float more gentlyagainst the neck while the neck is still providing sufficient support.This feature enables the user to custom fit this pillow 10 to his or herdesired comfort level. As shown, the neck support 20 extendssufficiently above the concavity of the head depression 15. This amountof height is needed to support the neck comfortably. It can be varied byreducing the inflation pressure and can be lowered slightly if sodesired. Additionally, the upper surfaces 18 of the sides 14 and 16 ofthe pillow 10 along each side reaches a level close to, but slightlybelow the ends 24, 26 of the neck support 20. This is best shown in FIG.7 wherein the ends 24, 26 are slightly above the sides 14, 16, however,not as pronounced as wherein the head-resting depression 15 is located.The user can easily rotate from side to side without any interference ofthe neck support 20. Ideally, the user can make any necessaryadjustments he or she needs to optimize the performance of the pillow10. It is possible that the inflatable portions of the main body bereplaced with non-inflatable pillows, however, it is believed essentialthat the neck support 20 be inflatable in that it needs to beadjustable. It is further believed that the combination of inflatablechambers or bladders 44, 45, 46 inside the pillow body 12 areadvantageous in adjusting the comfort level; however, it is within thescope of the invention to provide the pillow with only the neck support20 having an inflatable feature or bladder 22. This alternativeconstruction would mean that the main pillow body 12 could be shapedwith a foam material in the absence of any inflation capability. If theneck support is not adjustable, it would be difficult for the user toproperly achieve a desired comfort level. As shown, the main body can beformed with a suitable material and is heat sealed to form the differentchambers or can be any elastomeric material that is air impermeable. Theinflation tubes 30 are of a well-known design and are usually a flexibleelastomer that can be extended for inflation and refracted in a recessonce the chambers are filled so that they do not interfere or projectinto the person using them. These inflation tubes 30 are well-known inthe art and are used in pool toys and other inflatable devices. The foamcovering 50 as shown should be provided in at least a half an inchthickness or greater at least on the upper surfaces. This is because itis believed more comfortable for the person using the pillow to havethis soft cushioning effect even though the pillow may be positionedinside a pillow case (the pillow case not illustrated).

Variations in the present invention are possible in light of thedescription of it provided herein. While certain representativeembodiments and details have been shown for the purpose of illustratingthe subject invention, it will be apparent to those skilled in this artthat various changes and modifications can be made therein withoutdeparting from the scope of the subject invention. It is, therefore, tobe understood that changes can be made in the particular embodimentsdescribed, which will be within the full intended scope of the inventionas defined by the following appended claims.

1. A neck supporting pillow comprising: a body; and a neck support, theneck support affixed to said body projecting above and at leastpartially in front of said body and having a width approximating thewidth of the curvature of the neck and formed with an anterior convexityin a truncated “U” shape that projects significantly forward to keep theneck in its anatomical (curved anteriorly) position.
 2. The necksupporting pillow of claim 1 wherein said body is formed with one ormore inflatable bladders.
 3. The neck supporting pillow of claim 2wherein each inflatable bladder of said body has a separate inflationtube.
 4. The neck supporting pillow of claim 3 wherein each inflationtube is affixed to a recess in each bladder and extended to fill andretract in the recess in said body when sealed.
 5. The neck supportingpillow of claim 1 wherein said neck support is formed with an inflatablebladder.
 6. The neck supporting pillow of claim 1 wherein the bladder ofthe neck support has an inflation fill tube.
 7. The neck supportingpillow of claim 6 wherein each inflation tube is affixed to a recess ineach bladder and extended to fill and retract in the recess in said bodywhen sealed.
 8. The neck supporting pillow of claim 1 wherein said bodyis covered in a foam filled exterior.
 9. The neck supporting pillow ofclaim 1 wherein said neck support is covered in a foam filled exteriorsurface.
 10. The neck supporting pillow of claim 1 wherein said body hasa generally planar or flat exterior bottom surface and an exterior topsurface with a central head depression for the head to rest wherein theneck is supported at the base of the “U” shape and the head is lyinginside said “U” on the central depression.
 11. The neck supportingpillow of claim 10 wherein the central head depression extends fromadjacent the neck support toward an opposite side or edge of the body.12. The neck supporting pillow of claim 2 wherein the body has threeinflatable bladder chambers one on each side of said body and a centralchamber interposed between and forming the head depression, each chamberextending from a front to a back of the body generally parallel to saidsides.
 13. A neck supporting pillow comprising: a body; and a necksupport, the neck support affixed to said body projecting above and atleast partially in front of said body and having a width approximatingthe width of the curvature of the neck and formed with an anteriorconvexity in a truncated “U” shape that projects significantly forwardto keep lateral side portions of the body of the neck supporting pillowfrom interfering with the user while maintaining the neck in ananatomically normal condition with neck support of the pillow.
 14. Theneck supporting pillow of claim 13 wherein said body has a generallyplanar or flat exterior bottom surface and an exterior top surface witha central head depression for the head to rest wherein the neck issupported at the base of the “U” shape and the head is lying inside said“U” on the central depression.
 15. The neck supporting pillow of claim13 wherein the central head depression extends from adjacent the necksupport toward an opposite side or edge of the body.
 16. The necksupporting pillow of claim 13 wherein the body has three inflatablebladder chambers one on each side of said body and a central chamberinterposed between and forming the head depression, each chamberextending from a front to a back of the body generally parallel to saidsides.
 17. The neck supporting pillow of claim 16 wherein eachinflatable bladder of said body has a separate inflation tube.
 18. Theneck supporting pillow of claim 17 wherein each inflation tube isaffixed to a recess in each bladder and extended to fill and retract inthe recess in said body when sealed.
 19. The neck supporting pillow ofclaim 13 wherein said body is covered in a foam filled exterior.
 20. Theneck supporting pillow of claim 13 wherein said neck support is coveredin a foam filled exterior surface.